Helping Our People Overcome Economic & Social Disadvantage
308 N. Piegan, Browning, MT
BLACKFEET RESERVATION
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How Your Money is Spent
Our charter, in accordance with Tribal resolutions approved by the Tribal Council in 2010 and 2011, dictates that 80% or more goes to the actual purchase of gifts, and 20% or less goes to administrative costs. To date, the Fund has been an all-volunteer organization, so that 20% goes mainly to overhead, office expenses, transportation, advertising, donor gifts / recognition, etc.."
2010 - 2012 we bought all gifts in the days after Christmas at deep discounts (from Walmart, Sam's, etc.) in Great Falls and Kalispell, and on average we get about $3 worth of gifts for every $1 spent. So in effect every $1 you contributed bought about $2.40 in gifts (80 cents x 3 = $2.40) In 2013 and 2014 we shifted to a combination of buying some gifts before Christmas and some after, depending on who the gifts were for and when they were to be delivered, but in any case we search long and hard to get the best deals to stretch our limited budget as far as possible.
We concern ourselves primarily with raising money off the reservation, from folks all around the world. We don't even try to raise money on the reservation because, let's face it, everybody is broke, especially in 2013 when 500 - 800 local paychecks and vendor payments were held up by Tribal Council infighting. (Click here for news article.)
From our interactions with so many good-hearted, generous people coast to coast and overseas, we have come to realize there is an ocean of good out there will towards Indians in general and the Blackfeet in particular. Donors are willing, even anxious, to help the Blackfeet on many fronts if there was a reliable and credible mechanism for them to do so.
So starting in 2014 we will move various non-profit efforts benefiting the Blackfeet Reservation under one banner: The American Indian Partnership, which will operate completely separate from Tribal government and the Tribal Council, under its own 501(3)c / EIN / non-profit filing), This will enable donors to contribute year ‘round to improve the lives of reservation citizens. Also starting in 2014, in order to expand our efforts and be competitive with other nonprofits, we are committed to limiting all expenses to 30% so that 70% or more of donor dollars go to programs. That will put us in league with highly rated nonprofits, where 70% is the threshold donors and charity rating entities want to see in order to give a nonprofit a top rating.